Our Values

Our Values

At NTConnections, our values are the principles of the way we operate our businesses. From the way we work internally each day, to the relationships we foster with our customers and communities, we are guided by four core values.

Lead

Being a leader is not defined by a title but defined by actions. Our team has aligned our values and vision to empower our team members to exceed expectations.

Guide

We strive every day to exceed your expectations by having extraordinary attention to detail and always proving our commitment to your business.

Maintain

We aim to maintain our clients’ technology to ensure that technology issues become a thing of the past.

Trust

Trust is important not just in our own organization but within relationships we establish with our clients. We want to become your trusted source for all things technology.

Think It’s Painful To Switch IT Companies? – Part 2

When you realize that your current IT provider isn’t meeting your business needs, switching is the thing to do. It may seem like too much trouble, but if your IT company isn’t measuring up, it could harm your organization in downtime, lost files and data breaches. Don’t be a hostage to an incompetent vendor. Make the switch. With the right service provider, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

When you realize that your current IT provider isn’t meeting your business needs, switching is the thing to do. It may seem like too much trouble, but if your IT company isn’t measuring up, it could harm your organization in downtime, lost files and data breaches. Don’t be a hostage to an incompetent vendor. Make the switch. With the right service provider, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

Switching Isn’t Painful With The Right IT Provider

Your company depends on having the right information technology solutions in place to meet your day-to-day needs. When even one part of your IT system breaks down, it can spell disaster. Your customers complain when you can’t provide services, and you miss important deadlines. Don’t be a hostage to an incompetent vendor. Make the switch. With the right service provider, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

Is There Any Downtime During The Transition?

No, not with NTConnections’ transition experts. Unfortunately, not every service provider takes the same detailed cautious approach when transitioning your network to new management.

Your transition must be a well-conceived, well thought out process, using time-tested processes and a talented team of engineers. If it’s done correctly, there shouldn’t be any downtime.

How Long Does Switching An IT Provider Take?

Transitions can be as quick as 3 hours or as long as necessary. The key factors are based on two elements.

1. Is your old IT company going to be amicable about losing their support contract? If not, the transition will be expedited to help ensure that the former IT company doesn’t do anything to negatively impact your business.

2. The complexity of the network is a factor. The more “customized” your system, the longer the transition MAY take. Again, the transition can still be done quickly. However, to truly master the system and provide expert level support, complexity can extend the transition process.

Here’s an example…

A major hotel with about 400 rooms switched to our service when they were acquired by a new management company. We were already providing IT service for other properties within the management company’s portfolio. Since the acquisition hadn’t been fully completed, the previous owners denied our organization any access into the network; we were flying blind. At midnight on the day the acquisition was completed, our team of engineers got our first look at the network infrastructure.

As with all hotels, downtime is simply not an option. Guests must be able to get new room keys, reservations must be made, and guests must be able to check into the property. Our team was given 5 hours to transition the entire facility to the new ownership with no downtime allowed.

The IT system was complex and heavily integrated into a multitude of services such as Starbucks, room keys, telephone systems, TV systems and more. We worked through the night and by 5 am had their new network fully up and running with all new system integrations.

With proper planning, we can transition any system in just a few hours. Without the access and information we need, the standard pace is two weeks so we can audit the system and gather the information required. Having overlap and the ability to work with the old IT provider can shorten the time, but this isn’t a requirement for a successful transition.

Will We Have To Do Anything?

We always want you to be informed, but there really isn’t anything we need for you to do. As mentioned in Part 1, we can run an audit to find out what we need to know. But, if you do have information on hand like administrative passwords, this will help the process and potentially shorten the transition time.

Here’s A Checklist For Companies That Are Thinking About Switching IT Providers:

As mentioned in our previous article, the transition process gives you the opportunity to correct all of your IT problems from the past.

– Make a list of your likes and dislikes about your past IT provider.

This is your opportunity to evaluate what you liked about your IT provider and what you didn’t like (what the key problems were). Take the time to evaluate what went right and what went wrong. Hold a staff meeting to make sure you have all the major points covered.

Perhaps your IT provider was too slow.

Perhaps they made too many mistakes.

Or, perhaps your staff felt like they weren’t getting the support they needed.

Maybe you weren’t getting the detailed reporting you required.

Take into account your staff’s comments and needs, look at the direction of your organization, and document all of this for the new IT provider.

– Determine if you own your hardware or if it was being provided by your IT company.

A lot of businesses don’t even know if they own their hardware or the Managed Service Provider (MSP) leased it to them. It’s typically the firewall that’s in question. If the firewall is owned by the past IT company, they’ll come in and remove it.

If this is the case, we’ll work with you to implement a new firewall. This is important to know so you can work this into your budget. We’ll also move any leases over to your management.

Some IT companies use third-party leasing companies to help with the acquisition of equipment. They often represent these as their leasing in an attempt to hold you hostage to their service. More often than not, the reality is you’re leasing from a third party and not the MSP. We will help make those determinations and get you back in control of your leased equipment.

– Find out what services your past IT company was providing.

Do you know if your IT company is providing data backups, antivirus, email services, DNS hosting, hosted servers, web services, and other services that need to be considered when transitioning? It would be beneficial to have this information.

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you may want to add this to your list of reasons for switching IT companies. During our transition process, we will discover the answers to all of these questions and ensure that you have a simple resource to quickly and easily find the answers to these and many other questions.

– Who licensed your software? Does your business own these licenses or did your IT company?

This is one of the reasons businesses switch IT providers…because they weren’t informed about the services and solutions they were receiving. Some MSPs keep these things a secret so clients will be more reliant on them. They hide the details of licenses and leases from the client. Ultimately, when this happens, the client doesn’t trust their IT company; trust is an important quality in any MSP-client relationship.

You won’t have this problem with NTConnections because the only thing you’ll be paying us for is your monthly Managed Services, which include basic backups and antivirus. This way, there are no hidden fees, unforeseen expenses and your service is exactly what you expect.

If you lease any equipment (such as your business phones), this is done through a third party. We work with your vendors but don’t take over the service. Plus, any licenses and leases that you hold with outside vendors will be documented in our notes that you always have real-time access to. There won’t be any secrets. Plus, we’ll review all of your leases with you to ensure there aren’t any hidden clauses that could cost you later.

-Make a list of your administrative passwords.

If you don’t have these, we can still make the transition. But the transition will be easier if you have them. We just need a few administrative passwords to get the ball rolling. If we can’t get them from the old IT provider, we can start from scratch. No worries here.

In Conclusion

So, as you can see, switching IT Providers doesn’t have to be painful. You just need to choose wisely when looking for your next IT services company. Ensure they are transparent about the process, that they provide the reporting you require, and that they keep you informed before, during and after the transition. This is the sign of a trusted provider.

Thinking about switching IT companies, but worried about the transition? Need more reliable, secure and cost-effective services than your current IT company can provide? Contact NTConnections in Reston, Virginia for the IT support and service your DC Area business needs.

In the meantime, stay up to date on what you need to know about business technology today. Visit our Blog.